As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his top aide, chief of staff Katie Telford, are likely preparing to testify before the House of Commons Finance Committee as part of its ongoing study into the WE Charity student grant scandal embroiling the federal Liberal government, MPs are meeting to explore pursuing new avenues of inquiry.
The House of Commons Ethics Committee has not begun hearing from witnesses — though Trudeau’s presence has been requested — yet MPs on that committee are meeting to discuss and possibly vote to expand its study further on Wednesday.
Already, the federal ethics commissioner had launched investigations into possible conflict of interest code breaches by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Trudeau for not recusing themselves from the cabinet discussions about outsourcing the grant program to WE, given Trudeau’s family members have received speaking fees from the group and Morneau’s daughters have worked with WE.
As has been the case with each panel of witnesses to appear so far — from Finance Minister Bill Morneau, to senior public servant Rachel Wernick — Tuesday’s testimony from the Kielburgers offered several new details about the entire affair, creating a web of various tangents to the story and adding to the denials that political connections were behind a section of the self-described “labyrinth” organization being tapped to take on the Canada Student Service Grant.
It took from late April to late June before the promised program offering payments to students for summertime volunteer work on COVID-19-focused community projects was more fulsomely articulated and launched, and within days it was halted due to the controversy. During this time WE was already getting to work on the program rollout, MPs have heard.
His mother Margaret Trudeau has spoken at approximately 28 WE events and was paid $250,000 in speaking honorariums between 2016 and 2020. His brother, Alexandre Trudeau, also spoke at eight events from 2017 to 2018 and was paid a total of approximately $32,000.
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